Happily On Ever After 

In the time the short story “The lady with the dog” was written it was considered normal to marry for practical reasons. Reasons such as money, name, and place in society. Love was not the main motive for marriage. In this story we follow Anna and Demetri who are both married for practical reasons and do not feel true love towards their significant other. The lack of love these two feel in their own marriages is the catalyst of the story.

Anton Chekhov’s pulls us into these two peoples love story, and allows the reader to watch our main character Demetri grow and experience real love. The freedom to love one another and the unconscious growth it has on our character shows how important love is for us as humans to thrive.

Our main male Character Demetri despises women. He looks at them as “a lower race.” Even though he is married with two daughters, he feels a large amount of bitterness towards women.

He was enthralled with the ability to manipulate women and knew that women were attracted to him. He considered his affairs a sport, with everyone he became more bitter and less impressed with women. “and yet he could not get on two days without the lower race.”  This ironic because he has such a low opinion of women but is more comfortable with them than with the strong male society. Our female lead Anna is a very young innocent woman. She is visiting Yalta alone with her little white dog.

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Some say the color of the dog represents her purity and innocence. She and her husband of two years where having separate holidays. Demetri compares Anna to his daughters. He enjoys her youth and naiveté. Anna is unaware that Demetri has alternative motives and simply wants to toy with her.

Our characters begin their lustful affair after spending the evening by the bay watching the steamers roll in. After Demetri kisses Anna, he suggest they return to her hotel. While Demetri was successful in his conquest, he was not expecting Anna to feel so much guilt. “You will be the first to despise me.” Anna says to Demetri after they had made love. Demetri was confused and annoyed that she felt guilt. He tried to talk her down by saying “You don’t know what you’re saying.” We see Demetri calm Anna even though he is bored with her tantrum and inexperience. The two move on and continue to see each other every day in the park. Anna begs Demetri to tell her that she means nothing to him. “She continuingly begged him to confess that he did not respect her.” Anna was wrong, Demetri was falling hard for her.

Demetri was annoyed with himself at the fact he had truly fallen in love with Anna. Anna returns home to her husband, Demetri returns to his daily life. Demetri begins to unravel in his normal life. On a drunken night he confesses to a friend “If only you knew what a fascinating woman I made the acquaintance of in Yalta!” Here is a man who in the beginning of our story despises women and uses them as an object. Now is constantly obsessing over Anna, even asking himself “had he been in love?” After the holidays Demetri lies to his wife to fly to Pittsburg to find Anna. For what reason? To confess his love! Our character has finally felt real love and looks at Anna as an individual unlike anyone he’s ever met. “Was his sorrow and his joy, the one happiness he now desired for himself.”  Demetri finally finds Anna and confesses his love to her. Anna in return tells him he has to leave but without him “She is miserable.”

So our characters continue this affair for years. They go two years without seeing each other and are desperate for the freedom to openly love one another. We see that in their “real” lives they continue to play pretend. They are so painfully miserable but continue to go on with what is expected of them in society. Anna is sobbing at the end of our story because she longs to live openly with Demetri. Both of them would rather to continue on how they are, than nothing at all. It’s a little heartbreaking to see how hurt they are.

Anna began as a very shy and innocent girl. Over the story she has grown into a woman who is having a long term affair. In the beginning she felt shame and guilt by sleeping with Demetri. Now that guilt is gone and she focuses on how to lie in order to continue her affair without her husband knowing. Anna longs to be openly free with Demetri, if possible I believe she would leave her marriage. This speaks volume to the way society was in 1897, love was the last thing that mattered when it came to marriage. Another one was age both Demetri and Anna were married off to older spouses.

Demetri started off as a very bitter, chauvinistic man. He did not believe that women were more than a physical object to be used and tossed to the side. While affairs are not in good taste, they do happen. In this time period, Demetri was married for all the practical reasons, along with most the people in his society. You could conclude that the lack of physical love and passion, is why Demetri was that way. Once he found Anna that changes, he ends the story as an old man who believes that Anna hangs the moon. She is his true love. He is kind to her, talks highly of her. Anna is not a “lower class” to Demetri she is anything but that. The ending eludes to the idea that the affair will continue on because Demetri cannot live without Anna. Demetri did not set out to love someone or change. He did so unconsciously, really loving another human being helped him to grow and change emotionally.